


Cream and Sugar

by PinkCanary



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 12:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4101868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkCanary/pseuds/PinkCanary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bellamy isn't sure what prompts him to try his hand at matchmaking, but his attempt at setting up his two favorite customers could definitely be considered an unqualified success.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cream and Sugar

**Author's Note:**

> And it's a coffee shop AU. Because the world clearly doesn't have enough of those, yet. ;)

Bellamy couldn’t help watching the pretty blonde girl, as she sipped on her latte and thumbed through a massive anatomy textbook. She was becoming a distraction.

She came in several times a week - always ordered the same drink, and always spent hours frowning into whatever she happened to be studying on that particular day. On her first visit, Bellamy had been genuinely perplexed by her name - what kind of parents named their newborn daughter _Clarke_ \- and predictably messed it up when he wrote it on the cup. 

She had frowned at his best attempt (which he later learned was actually _pretty darn close_ ), before shrugging and retreating to her corner table with a scowl. Over the next few weeks, Bellamy had made it his mission to piss her off with every name variation that he could think of. He cycled through Claire, Caroline, Keira, and Kent, before she finally snapped. 

On that afternoon, she came into the coffee shop and immediately glowered upon seeing him standing at the counter. Her voice had been pure hatred as she ordered her latte; when he asked for her name, she clearly enunciated _Clarke_ as if she were speaking to a toddler. 

Several minutes later, Bellamy looked across the shop, latte in hand, and met her eyes evenly. “ _Princess?_ ” He called with just the slightest hint of sarcasm, making sure not to break eye contact.

Her expression had been indignant and filled with disbelief, until she caught sight of her coffee cup. Sure enough, Bellamy had scrawled “princess” on the cup, even taking the time to draw a tiny little Sharpie tiara perched upon the upper-case P. 

For just a moment, Bellamy was sure that this was going to be the last moment of his life; there was no way that she wasn’t about to murder him right here in the coffee shop. But then, something miraculous happened. She started to laugh.

And whether it was disbelief or residual stress over whatever giant textbook she was hauling around, or actual genuine humour, Bellamy had no idea. But she had actually smiled at him as she took her latte from him, before she returned to her table and went back to scowling down at her handwritten notes. From that day on, Bellamy made the point of drawing a little crown on her cup… before smiling and calling out her actual name. And she would scowl less venomously than before, and Bellamy would consider it a solid win. 

Which brings him to now; that is, staring at Clarke as she stares at her anatomy textbook, when he’s supposed to be working or at least fantasizing about something less awkward than his pain in the ass customer with the stupid name. 

Even if she did happen to be really fucking _gorgeous_.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door swinging open. _Finally._ It’s not like making coffee for tired students was his life’s work, but he was at least grateful for the distraction.

And what a distraction it turned out to be.

“Hey, Raven! What can I get for you?” He greeted the customer warmly. 

Raven was definitely one of his favourite regulars. She was sarcastic and funny, and she always smiled as she ordered and tossed her change in the tip jar. Oh yeah, and just happened to be ridiculously attractive. 

Pretty much the perfect customer. 

“Medium black coffee, please. Oh! And a chocolate chip cookie.” She grinned. “I have an exam tomorrow, so I need to get my caffeine and sugar levels up, if I’m going to have any chance.”

Bellamy turned to fetch her order and placed it in front of her; he just waved his hand at her when she tried to pay. 

“Not a chance. Consider it my contribution to the future of astrophysics, or whatever the hell it is that you do.” He winked at her with a wry grin. 

Raven threw the crumbled five dollar bill into the tip jar. “Smooth, Bellamy.” But her smile was enormous, lighting up her entire face. “Thank you, though.”

She made her way over to a a free table on the opposite side of the coffee shop from Clarke, and began pulling out her textbooks. And then it was back to the creepy staring. 

The afternoon continued to pass in this way; Bellamy served the few customers that wanted coffee in the middle of a week day afternoon, wiped down the same 12 by 12 inch square of counter in front of him, and watched Clarke as she frowned at her anatomy textbook. What a way to pay his rent.

After a few hours, Bellamy ventured out into the seating area to wipe down tables and clear the used mugs. Clarke was now frantically scribbling in a notebook, and so he made for the cream/sugar/honey/cinnamon/ _whatever else people put in their coffee to make it taste less like coffee_ counter that just happened to be located next to her table. Which was clearly a job that needed to get done, and not just a convenient excuse to get closer so that he could see what she was scribbling.

_’Keep it on the right side of creepy,_ ’ he chastised himself, as he tried to covertly look over her shoulder, while checking the levels on the sugar container. 

As he got closer, he could now see that Clarke was not actually writing, but instead doodling with her ballpoint pen in the empty space at the bottom of a page of notes. He instantly recognized the object of her interest; high cheekbones, dark eyes, hair braided back into a messy ponytail… Bellamy blinked a few times, staring at the unmistakable drawing of the customer currently sitting on the other side of the coffee shop.

_Interesting…_

As if she could feel the weight of his stare, Clarke suddenly startled upright, her pen poised above where she had been shading in Raven’s neck. Bellamy tried to look really interested in the stainless steel pitcher of 2% milk, but it was obvious that he had been caught. Clarke’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him, even as her cheeks flushed a deep rose color. 

She scowled at him. “Is there something that you need?”

Bellamy tried to affect an uninterested expression. “Nope. Just cleaning up.” 

Clarke raised one eyebrow at him expectantly, and _oh, that really was very attractive_. 

“I’m just going to…. go back to the counter now.” He finished lamely. And then he scurried back to said counter. Because Bellamy was a lot of things, but not stupid enough to call out his ridiculously gorgeous and perpetually angry customer on her obvious interest in the pretty brunette across the room. 

He stepped back behind the counter and picked up his rag to clean the 12 by 12 inch square right in front of him. As he scrubbed, his eyes met Raven’s from across the room, and she quirked one eyebrow at him as if to ask, “what the heck was _that_?” 

So she had seen the whole thing. _Very interesting._

Bellamy definitely was a lot of things, but even he was surprised to discover that he suddenly wanted to do _something_ , if only to make his scowling blonde customer maybe scowl just a little bit less. 

And so that’s what he was going to do.

* * *

It wasn’t until a few days later that he was able to put his plan into motion. His plan being, as it currently stood, to talk to Raven and try to be subtle.

Ok, so maybe he wasn’t exactly good at these things. But he was _trying_ , okay?

Raven was sitting in her usual table - black coffee, blueberry scone, and physics workbook - when Clarke came in to the coffee shop. She ordered her normal latte, gave a small tired smile at the crown that Bellamy drew on her coffee cup (he added some sparkles this time — he was _trying_ ), and then retreated to a table and proceed to pull a textbook out of her messenger bag. 

He didn’t know what had prompted him to get involved in this girl’s love life; match making was definitely more Octavia’s forte than his own. But there was just _something_ about this girl that had gotten to him from the very first time he met her. They had never really spoken to each other, beyond general coffee-related transactions, but she had definitely captured his attention. And yeah, so maybe he wanted to be the one that she smiled for, but if she was interested in Raven… he would do what he could do. 

Bellamy waited ten minutes after Clarke sat down, just to avoid being _completely_ obvious, before asking Miller if he could cover for him for a few minutes and taking off his apron.

Raven looked up as he sat down across from her at the table.

“What’s up, Bellamy?”

He sighed. This was going to be awkward, no matter which way he played it. He and Raven were definitely _friendly_ , but she definitely wasn’t what he would consider a friend. At least not yet. 

He spoke quietly, leaning his head close to Raven across the table. “So, you see that blonde over there?” He gestured his head behind him, trying not to be too obvious about it.

“The hot one that you like to stare at?” Raven grinned. “I might have noticed her.”

Bellamy’s mouth fell open as he tried to come up with a defence, but knew that anything that he could say would be futile ( _not to mention a complete lie_ ) and snapped it closed. 

_Whatever. This wasn’t about him._

“Yeah, that one.” He wasn’t sure how to phrase his next question to make it more subtle, and so he just went for it. “What do you think of her?”

Raven raised her eyebrows at him, but considered the question for a moment before speaking. “She is seriously hot, particularly if you’re into that whole ‘angry-and-in-charge’ vibe. She always looks stressed and vaguely pissed off, but she’s obviously a student and it is that time of year. She seems to smile more often when she talks to you, I’ve noticed.”

_Hmmmm, so she had been watching…_

Raven paused for a moment before continuing. “I totally think you should go for it.”

_What?_ Bellamy sputtered for a moment. That was definitely not what he was going for.

He decided to say just that. “No! I was… I was thinking that _you_ should go for it!”

Raven was looking at him like he had two heads, so he continued. “I noticed that she was drawing you the other day.” It vaguely occurred to him that this was probably beyond what he should be divulging to Raven, but he had started and he couldn’t just stop now. “She’s obviously interested, or at least attracted to, you. I was thinking that you should go talk to her.”

Raven still looked skeptical. “And so all of your staring at her has just been purely out of a good samaritan interest in setting her up with me?”

“Well… no. You said it yourself, she _is_ hot! I’m interested, but if she wants you, then what’s a guy supposed to do? I’m not going to chase a girl who is into other girls.” He grinned at Raven. “And she does have great taste…”

She laughed, the sound loud in the quiet coffee shop. “Always the smooth talker, Blake.” Her smile was warm and contemplative, though. “Hmmmm…. so, blondie is into me, eh? I think I could work with that.”

Bellamy smiled back at her. “I didn’t know if you were into girls, but I thought it might be worth mentioning, just in case…”

Raven shrugged. “I’m into whoever I’m into. And that ‘angry in charge’ look does kind of do it for me.” She paused. “Definitely something to think about, at least.”

“Okay, you think about that. I have to get back to actually selling coffee. Setting up pretty girls with each other unfortunately isn’t part of my job description.”

Raven was laughing at him again. “I have class in 20 minutes, so I better get going, too. This coffee break was definitely not as productive as I was hoping, but infinitely more informative.” She winked.

Bellamy grabbed her upper arm briefly as he stood up, before saying goodbye and heading back to the counter. As he turned to grab his apron, he spotted Clarke’s eyes following him, and he had no idea how to read her expression in that second that her eyes met his, before she looked quickly back down to her book.

* * *

Clarke was back the very next afternoon - hot chocolate and a slice of chocolate pound cake. Comfort food, Bellamy noted.

As he watched her reading her textbook, he contemplated going over there and talking to her. It was only fair, he thought, after telling Raven about Clarke’s drawing. Give her at least a heads up. 

Bellamy was still standing there, wiping the same patch of counter, when he was startled by Miller’s voice. 

“Take your break. Go over there and talk to her.”

Okay, so maybe he was the most obvious person in the entire world. Whatever. 

He sighed, but reached back to untie his apron. “Okay. I’m going to do it.” 

Miller just looked amused, but clapped his hand on his back encouragingly. At least he was a source of entertainment to all of his friends. He had that, at least. 

Bellamy approached the table carefully, like cornering a wild animal. “Hi? Clarke?” He started, and Clarke looked up with surprise. “Can I sit down?”

Clarke looked apprehensive, but she did nod, and so Bellamy sat down across from her. She raised one eyebrow at him expectantly.

“So…. um…. I talked to Raven yesterday.” 

A look that he could only describe as _disappointment_ flashed across her face for only a second, before her face shuttered, effectively becoming a blank canvas.

“And you’re telling me this why?”

That was not the reaction that he was expecting. Anger, embarrassment, denial — all those were things that Bellamy was prepared to face. But disappointment? In what?

“I thought that you would want a bit of advance warning, in case she tries to talk to you.” Bellamy paused, before pushing forward. This next part was going to piss her off, for sure. “I told her about you drawing her.”

Sure enough, her face suddenly exploded in a red flush, and her mouth dropped open. “You WHAT? Why would you go and do that? What angle are you playing, exactly?”

Bellamy was so confused. Clarke was _basically_ reacting how he expected, but for none of the reasons that he had anticipated. _What is it with girls being so goddamn complicated?_ “What _angle_? There is no angle. You like Raven. Raven is my friend. I want both of you to be happy, and she’s thinking of asking you out. I thought you might want to know about the drawing thing, just so there is no awkwardness if she brings it up. That’s it.” 

Clarke’s face was unreadable again. “Wait. I thought you were dating Raven. Or maybe not dating her, but _trying_ to date her?” Bellamy’s mouth fell open and he knew he must have looked ridiculous, but Clarke continued. “I mean, you’re always smiling at her and flirting with her, and giving her free coffee, and yesterday you guys were sitting so close and whispering to each other…”

_Ohhhh fuuuuck._ This must be the kind of thing that only happens to him. Try to do one nice thing in your entire life…

Bellamy was flustered. To say the least. “Raven is a friend! Yeah, she’s hot, but she’s a friend. And yesterday we were talking about _you_!”

Clarke flushed and her voice was quiet when she spoke again. “So…. you think she might ask me out?”

“I bet she does. She thinks you’re hot.”

Clarke turned even redder, and he can’t help poking just a little bit harder. “She’s totally right.” He grinned. 

This version of Clarke is definitely his favourite — shy and smiling, and just a little bit pink, with wide blue eyes. His heart clenches just a little, because she is _adorable_ and he is going through all of this stress and awkwardness to set her up with someone else, and it just feels _wrong_. But whatever. Because apparently he’s that guy now. Or at least trying to be. 

He tells himself that it’ll totally be worth it all, if he just gets to see her smile like that more often.

* * *

He isn’t sure if he considers himself to be extraordinary lucky, or extraordinarily unlucky, that he happens to be working on the day that Raven picks up her coffee and then heads straight over to Clarke’s table.

He can’t hear what they’re saying, but he knows that his staring has reached creepy levels, as he watches them converse. They seem to cycle from flirty, to intense, back to flirty, then serious, and finally determined, as they both look up at once, straight at him. 

_Well fuck,_ he thinks.

Raven stands up from the table, but instead of approaching him, she goes straight for Miller. She grins at Miller, giving him her most winning smile. “Bellamy doesn’t happen to have a break coming up, does he?”

Miller just looks over at Bellamy for a moment, and Bellamy can see the glee in his eyes. 

“We’re dead this afternoon and he’s off in an hour.” Miller looks over at him and gives him a look that Bellamy can only define as, _you poor sap_. “Why don’t you head home early. Looks like you have something waiting for you.” 

Raven is practically cackling, so he just unties his apron and heads toward the back. “I’m going to grab my stuff. I’ll be back in just a minute.”

He catches a glimpse of his own reflection in the break room mirror, and he can’t help chuckling a bit at the baffled expression on his own face. He pauses for a moment to try to tame his unruly curls, before deciding that he likes them better unruly, and runs his hands through his hair to mess it up to his satisfaction. _Alright, time to face whatever those two women have in store for him._

Clarke and Raven are sitting across from each other at a table meant for two, and so he snags a chair from a nearby table, and wedges himself between them. “Ok, what’s up?”

They exchange raised eyebrows for a moment ( _and it is terrifying and definitely does not turn him on at all_ ) before Clarke finally speaks. “So, Raven and I have been talking, and we realized a few things.” 

She pauses for a moment, and Raven picks up the thread. “First, you’ve been staring at Clarke every single time that she comes in here. Like, clearly you have a vested interest beyond my love life. I mean, I appreciate the interest in my love life, of course. But you’ve been watching pretty closely and there has to be a reason for that.”

Bellamy shrugged. “As I’ve said, you’re gorgeous. I’d have to be blind not to notice that. But you’ve never shown any interest, and you’re _clearly_ interested in Raven, and I’m not the kind of guy to hassle a girl when she isn’t reciprocating.” 

There is a hint of a smile on Clarke’s lips when she speaks. “I never showed any interest because you were so clearly hung up on Raven. You’re nicer to her than to anyone else that I’ve ever seen, you give her free drinks all the time. I do like you - the way that you try to make me smile with the nicknames and the silly drawings… But I wasn’t going to chase some guy who is clearly very into another girl.” She chuckled softly, and Bellamy caught just a hint of self-depreciation. 

Raven was smiling, though. “So, here’s what we’ve come up with. Clarke is into me. Because I’m awesome.” She winked at Clarke good naturedly. “And I’m into Clarke.”

Clarke cut in. “Because I’m also awesome!”

Raven nodded. “Because she’s also awesome. And we’ve established that you really like staring at Clarke, and that you really like flirting with me. And Clarke likes you, and I am definitely into those forearms of yours and have been wondering what you’re hiding under that apron.” She grins wickedly at Bellamy then, and Bellamy has _no idea_ where this is all going, but he’s starting to get the idea that it just might be _awesome_.

“So….” he prompts, “where does that leave us?”

Clarke is the one who answers. “Raven and I are definitely going to go on a date, and we were hoping that you might want to join us.” She pauses, and fidgets with her coffee cup for just a moment. “You know, as our date.”

Clarke just looks so earnest and hopeful, and Raven still has a bit of a wicked gleam in her eye, and _this could possibly be the best day of his entire life_.

“Well,” Bellamy starts, hoping that he sounds as casual as he’s trying for, “there is no way that I could possibly say no to that offer.”

Because Bellamy is definitely a lot of things, but he is certainly smart enough to know that this might just be the start of something completely amazing.


End file.
